26 minute read
News APAC
from SRPInsight 19
by SRP & FOW
NEWS | APAC
Exclusive: Thailand’s SCB digital platform boosts structured note sales
The structured notes business has been expanding rapidly at Siam Commercial Bank thanks to its digital wealth management platform.
SCB Wealth, the wealth management business of at Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), has traded structured products in notional of approximately THB40 billion (US$1.1 billion) year-to-date.
The wealth manager structured products business has accounted for nearly 30% of the total notional traded year-to-date, and represents an increase from 10% in 2021, according to Sornchai Suneta (pictured), CIO and product function executive vice president at SCB.
"The volume is expected to increase to THB60 billion by end of this year," Suneta told SRP. "Our structured products business has been expanding rapidly after we began to develop a wealth management digitalised platform five years ago."
The digitalised process is very convenient and saves a lot of time for documentation when it comes to structured products - Sornchai Suneta
The oldest Thai bank owns the largest market share in the structured notes market in Thailand's wealth management segment, according to Suneta.
At SCB, the platform was designed to enable relationship managers (RMs) to monitor clients’ asset allocation and investment position as well as provide tailor-made advisory across asset classes including structured products.
Since March 2022, all structured products issued within SCB Group which includes SCB Financial Markets, SCB Securities and SCB Asset Management are executed on the platform, according to Suneta.
"The digitalised process is very convenient and saves a lot of time for documentation when it comes to structured products," said Suneta, noting that the platform enables RMs to hold remote meetings with clients.
"The ability to provide end-to-end investment process in one time including advisory and transaction execution is very useful given the social distancing triggered by the Covid-19," he said.
At SCB Wealth, approximately 90% of the structured products are issued within SCB Group while the remaining are hedged by global investment banks and linked to US or HK tech stocks.
"The products issued by foreign banks must meet our internal criteria made by the investment committee, involving payoff and credit worthiness," said Suneta.
TREND The structured notes offered by SCB Wealth cover equity, interest rates and foreign exchange. However, equity-linked
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notes featuring knock-in and knock-out (KIKO) which dominated issuance in 2021 are no longer driving most activity. Instead, the Thai overnight repurchase rate (THOR) has become the preferred underlying as investors can benefit from capital protection, according to Suneta.
"We get more funding amount to buy options and the payout of the rate-linked notes has become more attractive," he said.
In the third quarter of 2022, capitalprotected inverse floater notes on THOR have posted THB15 billion traded notional. "The THOR moves much slower compared with the US or European interest rates," said Suneta.
Early this month, SCB Wealth collected THB2.3 billion from a gold-linked structured fund with double sharkfin payoff within two subscription days. It was launched by SCB Asset Management.
On the FX underlier side, dual currency notes with a one to threemonth tenor stand out, which make up approximately eight percent of the structured product traded notional at SCB Wealth year-to-date.
"Dual currency notes are mainly tailormade for Thai investors with demand for foreign currencies, such as overseas education or real estate purchase. They also cater to exporters who need to convert foreign currencies back to Thai baht," said Suneta.
According to Suneta, due to the uncertainty of today’s market, the traded volume of funds tracking directional assets has plunged as SCB Wealth clients look for cash flow and downside protection.
“Directional assets have not fared well. From last October, equity products haven't been outperforming as the market remains very volatile and moves in bear direction,” he said. “As investors are risk-off, we need to ensure some loss cushion or capital protection for them.”
He added that the bank has seen limited demand for quantitative investment strategies (QIS) because Thai investors prefer single or basket stocks in terms of risky assets. "QIS indices require lots of administration and education works," he said.
As SRP reported, Thailand's Krungthai Bank has offered multiple tranches of QIS index-linked structured notes with full principal protection this year. .
"Commodity was once in our asset allocation recommendation this year. The volatility is extremely high, and we tend to limit the asset class between five to ten percent of the overall portfolio,” said Suneta.
SCB Wealth is in talks with several global banks to bring bonus enhancement notes, accumulators and decumulators to the market next year in anticipation of a shift in the market direction.
"Given the valuations right now, the shares are much cheaper, and some investors therefore want to accumulate them," said Suneta, adding that from an issuer's perspective, hedging remains a main challenge, especially when the structured notes are denominated in foreign currencies.
"We need to hedge both the underlying and FX risk or quanto them back to Thai baht," said Suneta. As one of the top issuers of structured notes in Thailand, SCB is particularly active in USD-denominated issuance compared with peers.
As of 31 August, the commercial bank marketed 624 structured notes, 131 of which are USD-denominated, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
In contrast, SRP data shows that the entire structured notes issued by Kiatnakin Phatra Securities, which owned the largest market share at 27.9% as of 31 July, are all denominated in Thai baht.
Suneta expects further relaxation of rules to help growing the market with the minimum ticket for structured notes at THB5m for banks in Thailand to be lowered to THB1m - the same level as for security houses.
Structured notes can only be sold to high-net-worth individuals and corporates in Thailand. "The regulators have been quite accommodating. But for general investors with high-risk appetite score, it may be a good idea to start with structured notes that offer principal protection or feature low probability of principal loss, so their choices aren’t limited to directional assets," said Suneta.
Source: StructuredRetailProducts.com Data as of 31 July
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Hong Kong SAR: structured products volume down 14% in 2021
A survey conducted by the regulators in Hong Kong has found that the number of structured products traded dropped by 14% in 2021 year-on-year despite being the predominant financial product type.
The survey results released yesterday (27 September) by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) are based on responses from 327 licensed corporations (LCs) and 63 registered institutions (RIs).
Financial product providers sold nonexchange traded investment products with transaction amount of HK$5.0 trillion (US$637 billion) to 775,812 investors in Hong Kong SAR.
The transaction amount, which LCs and RIs accounted for 21% and 79%, respectively, is a 12% decrease year-on-year (YoY) 'due to unfavourable market sentiment and volatile markets in 2021 caused by the continuous impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, heightened geopolitical risks and expectations of interest rate hikes'.
PRODUCT TYPE The decrease in the total transaction amount was primarily attributable to
Transaction amount by product type (2021 vs 2020)
Source: SFC-HKMA joint survey on the sale of non-exchange traded investment products 2021
a HK$379 billion decrease in sales of structured products and a HK$240 billion fall in debt securities. Structured products remained the most popular financial instrument in the market making up 48% of the total transactions, or HK$2.39 trillion followed by collective investment schemes (CIS), which represented 30% in 2021 – an increase from 25% in 2020.
Other financial products sold to Hong Kong investors included debt securities (HK$818 billion, 16%), swaps (HK$272 billion, five percent) and repos/others (HK$49 billion, one percent).
Non-authorised products, not subject to the SFC regulation, accounted for 80% (2020: 84%) of the aggregated transaction amount, of which 58% were structured products and 20% were debt securities. Authorised products constituted 20% (2020: 16%) of the aggregated transaction amount and 93% of them were CIS.
STRUCTURED PRODUCTS The volume of structured products traded in 2021 amounted to HK$2,385 billion, down HK$379 billion or 14% YoY. The top 20 sellers of structured products
Source: SFC-HKMA joint survey on the sale of non-exchange traded investment products 2021
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Transaction amount for structured products
Source: SFC-HKMA joint survey on the sale of non-exchange traded investment products 2021
continued to dominate the market and accounted for 89% of the transaction amount for all structured products.
Despite the decrease in the overall transaction amount for structured products, sales of equity-linked products increased 5% year-on-year to HK$1,674 billion due to the buoyant performance of most major stock markets during the first half of 2021.
'The major underlying equities of these products remained stocks from the internet and technology sectors, which became increasingly popular since the pandemic began,' stated the report.
The HK$379 billion decrease in the transaction amount of structured products was mainly attributed to drops in the sale of commodity-linked products (by HK$339 billion) and currency-linked products (by HK$109 billion), partly set off by the increase in the sale of equitylinked products (by HK$77 billion).
EQUITY-LINKED PRODUCTS Equity-linked products remained the most popular structured products in Hong Kong which saw their trading volume increasing by 5% to HK$1.7 trillion in 2021, of which 87% were sold by RIs and the remaining by LCs.
Some large firms attributed the increase in client activities in equity-linked products to buoyant equity markets, particularly the US market, which experienced a strong rally during the first half of 2021 amid abundant liquidity provided by central banks as monetary stimulus. Other large firms noted that clients were interested in investing in accumulators linked with equities in both the Hong Kong and the US markets, which had a good opening in 2021. However, these activities gradually slowed during the rest of 2021 as investors began to worry about the high valuations of stocks and tightening of Chinese regulatory policies on technology companies.
Among the top five equity-linked products reported by the 81 larger firms, the majority were
linked to shares of internet and technology companies. However, their proportion dropped to 53% in 2021 from 64% in 2020. Traditional industries, such as the financial and automotive sectors, gained popularity in 2021 as underlying stocks for equity-linked products (2021: 26%, 2020: 16%).
CURRENCY-LINKED PRODUCTS The trading volume for currency-linked products was HK$436 billion in 2021, a fall of 20% from 2020. Of the transaction amount in 2021, 85% was sold by RIs and 15% by LCs.
Based on the top five currency-linked products, the share of products linked to the renminbi and US dollar increased to
Source: SFC-HKMA joint survey on the sale of non-exchange traded investment products 2021
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Industry sector of underlying equities of top five equitylinked products Underlying currenct pairs of top five currency-linked products
Source: SFC-HKMA joint survey on the sale of non-exchange traded investment products 2021 Source: SFC-HKMA joint survey on the sale of non-exchange traded investment products 2021
47% in 2021 from 13% in 2020. According to the report, more clients invested in short-term dual currency notes in USD/ RMB for yield enhancement as the renminbi strengthened against the US dollar during the year.
COMMODITY-LINKED PRODUCTS The trading volume of commodity-linked products declined by 72% to HK$131 billion in 2021 amid a decrease in demand for gold-related products. Of the total, 97% was sold by RIs and the rest was sold by LCs.
Over 90% of the commodity-linked products were tied to the price of gold, like the previous year. In 2020, the high level of uncertainty in the global economy due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic fuelled demand for gold and gold related products, according to the report.
During 2021, as vaccines were approved around the world and governments started to reopen their borders, investors were optimistic about a global economic recovery. The demand for gold-related products decreased, resulting in a drop in the total volume traded.
Westpac offers investors 25% discount to exit structured products
Westpac is seeking to exit Self-Funding Instalments (SFIs) by putting a vote to investors on bringing forward the completion date of the structured warrants to 17 November 2022 as the bank refocuses on core banking.
The decision follows changes in Westpac’s strategy to simplify its business and focus on core banking in Australia and New Zealand. The wind-down in Westpac SFIs commenced in November 2020 when the Australian bank ceased issuing new Westpac SFIs and moved to ‘bid-only’ support for Westpac SFI trading.
SFIs are a form of structured investment product that allow investors to buy shares in two payments. The first payment is usually between 40% and 60% of the current price of the underlying shares. By making the first payment, investors receive the full benefits and any share price movements, dividends and franking credits.
SFIs include a limited recourse loan, which is equal to an instalment payment - the loan attracts interest, which is calculated and capitalised daily. This means that the loan amount and, as a result, the instalment payment, will increase each day.
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SK regulator vows to close Heritage DLF inspection by year-end, DLS activity halves
The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) plans to conclude the redress to investors involved in the Germany Heritage derivative-linked securities (DLS) case in 2019.
In a parliamentary audit on 11 October, Lee Bok-hyun (pictured), the FSS governor since June 2022, said the regulator will complete the inspection into the troubled DLS, which was wrapped as a derivative-linked fund (DLF) and led to losses for retail investors in the second half of 2019, by year-end.
The pledge follows public criticism that the financial watchdog failed to prevent regulatory breaches including fund fraud scandals and illegal short selling. The non-principal protected DLF was sold to nearly 2,000 Korean investors, mainly retail, and its default of repayment has triggered frozen assets worth KRW520.9 billion (US$364m) in the country.
'There were obstacles in acquiring some documents from overseas and there were delays due to the prosecutors’ ongoing probe into the product,' said Lee. 'We plan to closely review the German heritage DLS and will report our management plans on how we operate our dispute settlement committee.'
Managed by Singapore-based Banjaran Asset Management, the German Heritage DLS was distributed by Korean financial institutions, including Shinhan Financial Investment. It tracked funds invested in convertible bonds issued by a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that offered loans to German Property Group, a real estate firm. The non-principal protected DLS failed to meet repayment after the German government declined to greenlight the property projects tied to the product.
The settlement of the German Heritage DLS is taking longer compared with other troubled DLS that resulted in a loss of KRW445.3 billion, and a KRW1.6 trillion fraud scandal by now-defunct hedge fund Lime Asset management from late 2019 to early 2020. The reimbursement of these products has been carried out by distributors including Woori Bank and the Industrial Bank of Korea, as ordered by the FSS.
Lee also noted that the FSS has been investigating several cases of illegal stock short selling and other related unfair business practices.
The sales volume of DLS in South Korea has continued to decline in the third quarter of 2022 since the outbreak of the mis-selling crisis, which led to significantly tightened regulations.
There were 140 DLS issued by a group of nine local securities houses during the three months, driven by Samsung Securities (63) and Dongbu Securities (24), SRP data shows. Their notional amount reached US$537mequivalent, which was almost halved year-on-year, or down 42% compared with a quarter ago.
Among 42 underlying assets, the most popular ones for the new issuance were the credit of K Water, Korea Land & Housing Cop and Daegu Urban Corp.
We plan to closely review the German heritage DLS
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Foreign banks eye commodity derivatives as QFII rules are softened
UBS and HSBC have started to facilitate commodity futures and options on five exchanges in China for qualified foreign institutional investors (QFIIs) on the back of relaxed rules.
In a first for the Chinese market, UBS Futures, the futures brokerage arm of UBS Securities in China, executed its first domestic commodity futures transactions for qualified foreign institutional investors (QFIIs) and RMB QFIIs (RQFIIs) on 11 October.
QFIIs and RQIFFs are inbound investment programmes, which enables qualified foreign institutional investors to gain direct access to trade A-shares, bonds and securities investment denominated in onshore Chinese yuan (CNY). QFIIs remit foreign currencies while QFIIs use offshore Chinese yuan (CNH).
Established in 2014, UBS Futures has been monitoring the opening up of China's futures market, while leveraging UBS' network to target overseas clients since 2020, stated UBS.
'We look forward to the further liberalisation of the financial derivatives investment policy under the new QFII rules, which will provide more investment and risk management tools for investors and will encourage overseas investors to actively participate in China's capital market,' said Thomas Fang (pictured), head of China global markets at UBS.
The trade follows the listing on 2 September of 23 types of commodity futures and 16 types of commodity options which are available to (R)QFIIs for trading at four other exchanges - the Shanghai Futures Exchange, Shanghai International Energy Exchange Center, Dalian Commodity Exchange, and Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange.
There are 48 future types and 26 option types listed across the four exchanges at present.
"The regulatory change will enable offshore investors to invest in structured products tied to the approved commodity underliers, which helps with the internationalisation of China's capital markets," a senior market source told SRP.
However, according to the banker, that market remains insignificant because it's uncommon to trade structured products through QFIIs. Commodities remain unpopular underlying assets even in the onshore structured product market compared with equity indices and interest rates.
‘QFII business and international products have always been the strategic focus of UBS Futures,’ said Ben Teo, the chairman of UBS Futures. ‘Over the years we have efficiently served QFIIs in the hedging business of China Financial Futures Exchange, and now we will also be able to assist their trading in domestic commodity futures.’
Also, on 11 October, HSBC announced a commodity futures trade for a QFII hedge fund, which has been actively investing in China and using HSBC as its local QFII custodian.
There were 723 QFIIs and 22 QFII custodians as of September, according to the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) including several foreign banks acting as custodians - Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, Bank of TokyoMitsubishi UFJ, BNP Paribas and HSBC Bank, which was appointed by 249 QFIIs.
'We expect to see more derivatives trades through QFI routes, as investors take advantage of the recent regulatory changes for the purpose of hedging and risk management within their portfolios. We are pleased to help our clients to optimise their renminbi allocations,' said Rafael Moral Santiago (right), regional head of Apac and Middle East, North Africa and Turkey for Securities Services at HSBC.
In addition, equity index options became accessible for (R)QFIIs at the China Financial Futures Exchange from the same day – the bourse currently lists options on the CSI 300 and CSI 1000 indices.
On 19 September, HSBC facilitated an index option transaction on the China Financial Futures Exchange placed by a Hong Kong-based hedge fund, becoming the first international custodian bank to enable a QFII to invest in China’s futures markets.
HSBC didn't disclose the underlying asset and notional amount for both trades.
The expanded investment scope for (R) QIFFs was initiated back on 25 September 2020 when a group of financial watchdogs co-released the Provisions on Issues concerning the Implementation of the Administrative Measures for Securities and Futures Investment Made in China by QFIIs and RQFIIs.
In September 2019, the restrictions on investment quota for QFII and RQFIIs were removed to 'implement the deployment of the central government on further opening up China’s financial market,’ according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.
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Exclusive: BofA names Apac head of derivatives distribution
The US bank has promoted its Apac head of equity derivatives distribution.
Arnaud Davoust has relocated to Singapore from Hong Kong SAR to take on a new role as head of Apac derivatives distribution and head of Singapore equities.
Davoust will continue to report to Olivier Thiriet (pictured), head of Apac equities, in Hong Kong SAR, according to sources. A spokesperson at the US bank confirmed his role in Singapore.
Davoust joined BofA as managing director, Apac head of equity derivatives distribution in November 2019. His representative licence with Merrill Lynch Far East was terminated on 31 August 2022, according to Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).
The veteran structurer has been licensed with Merrill Lynch (Singapore) since 11 October 2022 under the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
Davoust was poached by BofA from Société Générale where his last role was managing director, head of financial engineering for Japan based in Tokyo. During his 13 years at the French bank, he started as an equity derivatives structurer in July 2006 before becoming head of cross asset pricing, private wealth management in Paris in July 2010.
Davoust then relocated to New York as head of cross asset pricing for Americas until his move to Tokyo in August 2015. Prior to joining the French bank, he spent a year at HSBC as an equity derivatives structurer.
The US bank which remains a small player in the Apac retail structured products market returned to the top 10 in the US market league table in July with a 5.8% market share. Also in the US, the bank’s brokerage business, BofA Securities, was fined US$5m by the US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) for failing to report accurately over-the-counter (OTC) options positions and related supervisory failures, as SRP reported.
StanChart debuts ESG structured note out of Taiwan
Standard Chartered has launched the first ESG structured note issued in Taiwan by the Bank with a US$40m ESG structured Formosa note that sold to investors in Taiwan.
The UK bank’s inaugural Formosa note issuance follows a number of sustainable finance transactions from Standard Chartered over the last few months including a sustainable fiduciary deposit offering in the UK, an ESG Islamic repo transaction with a Malaysian bank, and its first Sustainable Export Letter of Credit programme.
The US$40m Formosa note, issued by Standard Chartered Bank from its note, certificate and warrant programme, has a 10-year tenor and is callable after three years by the issuer.
‘Only a very small number of sustainability bonds have been issued to support emerging markets in their transition to a low carbon future,’ said Amit Puri (pictured), global head of sustainable finance at Standard Chartered. ‘Yet it is these very countries that will have a major impact on the world’s ability to meet climate targets.’
Standard Chartered has printed more than 90 Formosa trades and brought more than 40 foreign issuers to the country, according to Ian Anderson, CEO at Standard Chartered Taiwan.
‘The new structured notes will help finance the bank’s Sustainable Finance assets including offshore wind assets and green energy projects located in Taiwan and globally,’ he said.
This is the sixth issuance by the UK bank year to date in the Formosa market. E.SUN Bank was co-manager in this transaction.
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GSR: a long way for complex crypto structures
Covered calls and put options will remain the preferred options types in the crypto structured products market for a while due to the high volatility of this asset class, and the incapacity for trading desks to hedge crypto exotic risks.
In an interview with SRP, Chuan Jin Fong (pictured), managing director, head of Asia sales at GSR, discusses the key aspects for structured products linked to cryptos, including issuer credit, pricing, funding cost and wrapper.
What is your observation in the development of structured products in crypto?
Chuan Jin Fong: The structured product space in crypto has not evolved as quickly as some people might think. The key is that the nature of a structured product is hunt for yield. Investors want customized risk profiles. The crypto space has a few different nuances. First, it is very hard to find an issuer of cryptocurrency-linked structured notes. Banks can't take delivery of the underlying if they want to do a structure like equity-linked notes (ELNs) on crypto because to do so requires a custody concept, which a lot of banks are still sort of figuring out what they can and cannot hold. You can overcome this by delivering a future and rolling it. But investors want to receive cryptocurrencies.
I did some of the most complicated trades from SPV repack notes for Taiwan and Korea in traditional finance (TradFi).
But you will never see that in crypto due to the nature of high volatility in crypto for now, which allows you to keep the structures really simple, such as selling a covered call or a put option on the crypto. In this case you're already achieving yields of 20% to 40% pa. without even going so far down the curve.
And the best thing about crypto is how the whole curve is shaped. A lot of that volatility is in the front end of the curve, unlike in traditional structured products where you must go for the tail end and longer-dated risk for more volatility.
How's the hedging capability in the market?
Chuan Jin Fong: The ability for desks to hedge crypto exotic risks doesn't exist right now.
There're two ways of pricing complex structured product. You either do it via individual Black Scholes option pricing, combine them together, calculate a correlation, take a fee, or use a Monte Carlo simulation, which will run the model 5000x or so weighted outcomes and work out a value.
In crypto, a Monte Carlo simulation is only as strong as the inputs. If you think about the concept that we have in banking, which is GIGO - garbage in and garbage out. If the inputs into the Monte Carlo simulation are insufficient, there's no point relying on the output. And that's what we lack. We don't have such things as forward volatility or the proper surfaces across coins yet.
As for the Black Scholes model, technically we can calculate a correlation, but that correlation is valid at this point in time. In crypto, correlation comes and goes very quickly. Everything may correlate with Bitcoin.
What's your expectation in the next few years?
Chuan Jin Fong: We are going to see an evolution, but it will only happen as
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volatility in the space starts to dampen, which I do not see any time soon. And now as more sophisticated participants come in, a problem of crypto is that there're large trading desks like GSP on the sell-side, but it's not complex organizations on the buyside – there're some retail investors, family offices and a few smaller funds. So, the market is very imbalanced for evolution.
In Asia, some of the trading desks that we come across regularly in the vol space are Genesis, GCP, Wintermute, Amber and a new one called Orbit Markets.
It's noteworthy that you need balance sheet to create a proper structured book and the ability to sit on volatility. I think balance sheet is something that we take it for granted. Banks have huge balance sheets. But in crypto, the amount of risk that can be taken is huge.
Have you seen exotic structures in crypto?
Chuan Jin Fong: In the last two months we've seen a lot more people starting to look at things like barriers, such as American and European knock-ins. We have seen some baskets, but I don't think they are sophisticated enough to do worst off or best off. Instead, it tends to be more equal-weighted baskets. The key lies in how you price the worstoff and what correlation to be used.
What are the challenges?
Chuan Jin Fong: Wrapper is another issue for structured products. I would look at funding spreads when I used to structure principal-protected notes (PPNs). The funding curve for most institutions tends to be upward sloping. We never see a PPN in equity, which typically last for one to six months, due to insufficient funding. So, investors start to do SPVs.
In crypto, you can't do that because the options are just way too expensive. Volatility high means good or bad. On one side you can generate by selling. On the other side, it's very expensive to buy. You barely see principal protection in the market.
In traditional markets, investors want an issuer who is investment grade. We don't have that in crypto. That's the problem. We don't have supranational companies.
One mechanism in crypto that investors use to generate yield is staking, which is also partly why structured products didn't really take off. Staking in crypto is a massive business. If an investor holds on to three of the layer ones, he or she probably can get around 6% pa.
Julius Baer enters China offshore market via partnership
Julius Baer has become a strategic investor and business partner of China’s Grow Investment Group as a first step to enter China’s onshore market.
Under the terms of the agreement, the new partners will jointly establish a distribution network for Grow’s domestic clients to access selected Julius Baer offerings via Qualified Domestic Limited Partnership (QDLP) products while the Swiss bank’s clients will have access to local investment expertise and assets via Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) products.
Grow is a Shanghai-based domestic asset management company established in June 2021 with the goal of becoming ‘a world-class, next generation asset management firm with a focus on China’. The amount of the transaction amounted to a low double digit million US dollar equity investment which has not been disclosed.
‘The cooperation between Grow and Julius Baer will undoubtedly create value for these clients and support our growth plans for this important market,’ said David Shick (pictured), head of Greater China at Julius Baer.
The Swiss private bank reported CHF17.1 billion worth of assets under management linked to structured products in H1 2022.
Structured products accounted for four percent of the AuM, or CHF17.1 billion, after equities, investment funds, client deposits and bonds/convertibles. The amount translated to a decline from CHF19.3 billion a year ago as well as six months ago.
